Helping or Hindering? Controversies Around the International Second-hand Clothing Trade
Author(s)
Hansen, Karen Tranberg
Abstract
The international second-hand clothing trade has a long history, yet it is only very recently that its changing cultural and economic nexus has become the focus of substantive work, at the point of either collection or consumption. International and local concerns about second-hand clothing imports to the Third World cannot be ignored. They matter, but perhaps not in the way that has been most vocally argued. This article briefly examines some of the arguments about the negative effects of such imports. I describe the organization of the global trade, discuss some recent anthropological studies, and turn to Zambia for an account of the trade’s impact on local livelihoods.
